I’ll be taking a summer break and may be posting less than usual to the blog for a while. Our family will be visiting Washington state and Oregon - specifically Seattle and Vancouver, Washington, and Portland and Bend, Oregon. Most of our time will be in Oregon. My sister lives in Bend, and we also want to see the famously “sustainable” Portland, noted for its urban planning and public transit. Coincidentally, my wife’s family has scheduled a family reunion at Mt. Bachelor Village Resort, in Bend, so we can see a lot of people in one visit.

Vancouver, Portland, and Bend are also all designated as “bicycle-friendly” communities by the League of American Bicyclists, so I look forward to seeing what they offer in that venue.

I’ve been reading a Moon Handbook to Oregon (6th ed., 2004) by Elizabeth and Mark Morris. (I appreciated Moon’s Handbook to Northern California when we lived there.) In it I came across this info on bicycling in Oregon:

In the wake of the oil shocks of the 1970s, the Oregon legislature allocated one percent of the state highways budget to develop bike lanes and encourage energy-saving bicyclists. In addition to establishing routes throughout the state with these funds, many special parks were developed with bicycle and foot access specifically in mind. (p. 52)

What are the chances that Minnesota and other states could do the same? I also found this:

Portland has long been known as a bicycle-friendly city. Its nationally recognized bicycle program provides a comprehensive, safe bikeway network to increase the number of residents who bicycle to work, on errands, and for exercise or pleasure. To accomplish this, the city has created close to 200 miles of bikeways (bicycle lanes, boulevards, and multi-use trails). As a result, many more folks are riding bicycles. In 1975 about 200 cyclists crossed the Hawthorne Bridge daily by bike; today, it’s up to 2,400. (p. 122)

On a different subject, I’m intrigued by what I’ve read about another part of Oregon: southeastern Oregon. It’s one of the most sparsely populated regions in the lower 48 states. It borders northern Nevada, an area that has also intrigued me since my family drove through it on Interstate 80 when I was a teenager. These regions - along with Bend, which is in central Oregon - are part of the Great Basin high desert. Bend is home to the High Desert Museum, which I hope to visit.

Tracy Davis, member of the Northfield Planning Commission, alerted me to this nice essay by Neal Peirce, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group, published April 15: “City bikes: clean, healthy, fun - and faster than cars?” The “complete streets” idea mentioned below is key. Here are two excerpts: Read the rest of this entry »

On Sunday, April 22, Earth Day, I went to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, to hear a talk by Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives (TA) in New York City. Young, charismatic, and energetic, White is a national leader on issues related to getting us out of our cars and using transit, bikes, and our own feet.

His talk was titled “Reclaiming Urban Public Space to Lessen Environmental Impacts and Maximize Human Happiness.” He began by discussing the environmental advantages of densely populated urban environments, then declaring his interest in our streets, “the spaces between our buildings.” Only recently have streets been given over to cars, he said.  Read the rest of this entry »

The StarTribune has a blog called Road Guy, which I read for the first time today. Its author is described this way:

Roadguy is Jim Foti, a transportation geek who is fascinated with the ways that Minnesotans get around town. Join him for smart remarks, navigational nuggets and adventures in the Twin Cities and beyond.

I kind of like the term “transportation geek” and have to admit that, much to my surprise, it’s come to apply to me.

I’m glad to see that the Road Guy pays attention to issues that affect cyclists and pedestrians, and I thought I would pass on this quiz that he provided in a post. I’ve included the answers, I’m afraid, because my main interest is in spreading knowledge about Minnesota state laws:

Answers to the bike quiz

1. How many feet of clearance are Minnesota motorists required to give when passing cyclists? Three (state law)
2. Where are cyclists allowed to ride on sidewalks in Minneapolis?
• Anywhere except business districts or where posted
3. Are cyclists restricted to the bike lane on streets that have a bike lane? No (state law)
4. Is a motorist required to yield the right of way to a cyclist riding in a crosswalk? Yes (state law)
5. In Minneapolis, is it legal to park and attach your bike to:
   • A tree? No
   • A signpost? Yes
   • A parking meter? No

In looking up Transportation Alternatives, I came across their “Green Transportation Hierarchy.” Pretty cool. Spread the word.

Here’s the “green” version that I found, which is smaller and harder to read:

Earlier this week the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced that it would be spending $500 million dollars over the next five years to lead a national campaign against childhood obesity. The foundation likened this new campaign to work it has done previously to address tobacco use.

The foundation’s press release describes the childhood obesity epidemic and its costs in stark terms:

During the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups, more than quadrupling among children ages 6 to 11. Today, more than 33 percent of children and adolescents—approximately 25 million kids—are overweight or obese.

Preventing obesity during childhood is critical, because habits that last into adulthood frequently are formed during youth. Research shows that overweight adolescents have up to an 80 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. Earlier onset of obesity leads to the earlier onset of related illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer.

In addition to the toll on our nation’s health, obesity also poses a tremendous financial threat to our economy and our health care system. It’s estimated that the obesity epidemic costs our nation $117 billion per year in direct health care costs and lost productivity. Childhood obesity alone carries a huge price tag-up to $14 billion per year in direct health care costs to treat kids.

The foundation wants to reverse this epidemic by 2015, and promoting physical activity will be one part of the solution. I liked this quote from the foundation’s president, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, which gets at one of the causes of the obesity epidemic: “Physical activity has really just been engineered out of our life” (from an NPR interview).

Let’s start engineering physical activity back into our lives and into our communities. Keep on the lookout for upcoming Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants that can be used to address obesity in your community.

I attended the City of Northfield’s Comprehensive Plan revision public meeting last night along with several hundred other folks. According to the consultant leading the meeting, the turnout was better than at a similar meeting in Amherst, Massachusetts, recently.

One thing we did was to identify on a map the “strong” and “weak” places in Northfield - or desirable and undesirable places. The consensus at our table was that Northfield’s strong places include the downtown, the historic neighborhoods on the east and west sides of town near downtown, and the Carleton Arboretum. The weak locations are the highway 3 corridor south of town, the same corridor in the center of town, and the cul de sac neighborhoods in the southeast part of town. (None of us at the table lives in the latter.) Read the rest of this entry »

See my post on northfieldtrails.org for information on the important April 3 meeting at which the public can give input on Northfield’s Comprehensive Plan revision.